Springtime Snapshots
by thelittlestbruja
Summary: Kakashi didn't realize how deep he was, until he started drowning.
1. Chapter 1

Kakashi can't stop the swell of pride in his chest as Sakura slams her fist into the ground. The earth beneath her shattering into a million directions at once.

He does an even worse job stopping the pounding of his heart as she smiles and says, "Found you, Kakashi-Sensei."

* * *

Kakashi thinks to himself. Was Sakura's eyes always this green? Sure he always knew in the back of his mind that they were green, but when was they last time he had _really_ looked at them? They were so much more emerald then he remembered and he is sure that any jewel of the same name is envious of their richness. They sparkle as she sheds tears and holds Granny Chiyo's body against hers.

He is relieved it isn't the other way around.

* * *

She visits him at the hospital after all the business with the Tenchi bridge. He can't stop the sigh of relief that escapes his lips when she walks in.

Sakura gives him a sad smile. She looks rattled after confronting Sasuke. Kakashi can feel the anger bubbling up in his chest.

Her eyes tear up when she tells him what happened. He wants to reach out and ruffle her hair like he did when she was younger, but she isn't that little girl anymore. He can tell by the fierceness in her eyes and the muscles that tighten as she grips the edge of her skirt.

Kakashi makes a silent promise that he will make Sasuke pay for what he did to her, but then again she could probably handle that herself.

* * *

"Kakashi-Sensei?"

He feels his shoulders tense. He certainly isn't expecting her company.

"Hmm." He can easily disappear into a puff of smoke, but he finds himself beginning to enjoy her presence a lot more these days. He can sense her soft, radiating chakra. Kakashi is very familiar with it. When they are on missions together he will often fall asleep to it's gentle pulsing. He only just now realizes how bad that sounds.

"I brought you something…" Her cheeks are tinted a soft pink. "I know you have been missing Jiraiya-Sensei's writing lately…"

Kakashi's eyes narrow as he watches her trying to gather the right words together. He notices the brown bag she is hiding behind her back.

"So, I got you this…" She thrusts the bag into his face. "The man at the bookstore highly recommended it."

Kakashi turns over the brown bag in his hands, He is surprised to find a cellophane wrapped novel.

"I know it's not any of the Icha Icha novels…but I thought…Maybe it might…"

"What store did you find this?" He asks as he turns the novel over in his hands to read the back. There is a picture of a sultry blonde pouting up at him.

"Um…" Her cheeks flush a deeper shade of pink "The one behind Ichariko…"

Kakashi turns towards her quickly. "Are you old enough to go in there?"

She opens and closes her mouth. "Of course I am Kakashi-Sensei!" She crosses her arms over her chest with a huff.

Kakashi lets his eye wonder over her, something he has been purposefully avoiding recently. He enjoys the way the wind is toying with her hair, the way the her red vest settles around her curves, and how her black shorts fit around her hips. She still looks incredibly young, at least when compared to him.

It is hard to imagine her walking the aisles of his favorite porn shop.

He turns his attention back towards the book.

"You asked Daisuki for a recommendation?"

"Yes, he said he knew you would like it."

He frowns, and is thankful that his mask hides it well. He feels a small ping of jealousy in his chest. He can just picture Sakura nervously toying with a strand of hair, a warm flush spread across her cheeks, as she asks for a suggestion on some porn.

Kakashi, oddly feels the urge to punch something.

"If you don't like it I can take it back?" She crouches down next to him. Kakashi wrinkles his nose. He can smell her perfume, a fruity and flowery scent that had been wafting in and out of his dreams lately.

"Maybe, I should have read it first." She plucks the book from his hands.

Now he was imagining her reading porn.

"No," He snatches the book back from her. Maybe a little bit too quickly. "It's fine. Thank you, Sakura-Chan."

He enjoys the way her face lights up and as she smiles at him.

"Anytime, Kakashi-Sensei"

* * *

Kakashi surprises himself, He wasn't expecting to get this close. Not just to her, all of them. Now here he is at a bar with _his_ team. His head is spinning and he can't help but enjoy the way Sakura's cheeks flush from the liquor and her hair puffs out from the humidity.

She is playfully ruffling Naruto's hair and teasing Sai about some alien thing he just said.

Kakashi is sure he won't remember what they discussed tonight or even what they drank, but he knows for sure that the image of her neck tipping back as she lets out a melodious laugh will forever be burned into the corners of his mind.

He is starting to think he gets what Guy says when he talks about the "Spring Time of Youth".

He usually just brushes it off. His youth wasn't exactly what you would call Spring, more like a harsh winter that never really ended.

Kakashi thinks he gets it, while watching Sakura fling a fist into a rogue ninja's chest. Her forehead slightly shiny from sweat, her cheeks a pink that matches her hair, and her chest rising and falling rapidly.

It clicks.

Like a key in a lock.

He thinks of Spring and youth and it reminds him of the color of her hair.

Kakashi feels rather perplexed at the flurry of butterflies in his stomach as she turns and smiles at him.

* * *

This is it.

There is no way he is getting out of this one right?

He can't survive two ninja wars. He isn't that lucky.

Kakashi glances over at his former student and feels a pain in his chest. He has been feeling those a lot lately. He even took the time to go to the hospital and they said there was't anything wrong with him physically. Kakashi just thought maybe he was just getting old, but he realizes now with shocking clarity the origins of his afflictions.

He carries that dumb book she bought him everywhere

He even gives the dogs baths with her brand of shampoo.

Staring at her now as the wind whips back her pink hair and her forehead creases in concentration, he knows now he was just fooling himself.

He curses under his breath.

Timing was never on his side was it?

He feels one of her arms go around him. He is pleasantly surprised he could still smell her perfume. He thinks he wouldn't mind dying to that.

She is covered in dirt and is breathing heavy. Her pink hair falling over her face.

"Kakashi-Sensei, your eye?!" The concern in her voice nearly breaks his heart in half. A gentle hand rests on his cheek.

His sight is blurry and he can no longer make out the features of her face. All he sees is pink. Kakashi can't help, but think that if there is one color that might lead him into the afterlife, he is glad it's this particular shade that fills his vision.


	2. Chapter 2

Kakashi shoves his hands into his pockets and sighs. His hokage robes is stifling in the bright sun and it doesn't help that he feels like he is going to implode.

He can't even hear what they are saying over the sound of his frantically beating heart shattering into a millions pieces. He looks up and wonders why this hurts so much. He didn't even know he had enough heart in him left to break.

"I'll see you later." Sasuke whispers as he places two fingers against Sakura's forehead.

He had to know this day was coming, right? He always knew in the back of his mind that she was, is, in love with Sasuke. Kakashi is just an old fool, someone dumb enough to think that every smile, every hand placed in the crook of his elbow, every shoulder bump she gave, every fluttering of her eyelashes she sent his way meant something.

Kakashi is old, broken, and has far too many scars.

Sasuke is just as broken but, he is her sparkling girlish dream and Kakashi…well his just her old perverted sensei.

* * *

He is starting to miss her. The mind numbing politics of being Hokage is incredibly dull. He misses her hair and her smile. Her bright eyes. Her laugh. The way her brow furrows when she is focusing on healing him. The feeling of her index finger as she pokes his side when he isn't participating in the conversation enough for her taste. He just misses _her_ and the warmth that she brings to any room she stands in.

What used to be a dull ache in the center of his chest. Is now a plethora of tingling sensations that have spread to all his limbs. It is a need now, a desperate need to see her, to smell her perfume. He drops his head onto his desk, causing several papers to flutter to the floor.

* * *

He is hiding.

From what he couldn't be sure. He thinks you can say just about everything.

He is laying back in the soft grass of the training grounds. Icha Icha paradise laying open on his chest.

He senses her chakra from a mile away getting closer and closer to him. As the distance between them closes the pattering of his heartbeat increases.

Soon she is standing over him, hands on her hips.

"Hokage-Sama, do you plan on returning to work today?"

He lazily glances over her. Her hair is longer now and it is gently flowing in the breeze.

"No."

He moves his eyes away from the soft curve of her hips to the blinding sun.

He feels a small shock go through him as she lays down next to him in the grass. Her hair looks even more brilliant against the vibrant green. Kakashi feels his face redden. He can't remember the last time he blushed.

He watches her out of the corner of his eye.

"I miss you." She is looking at him.

"I miss you too." His tongue doesn't give his mind the opportunity to stop the words that tumble out.

She smiles softly at him and he feels a warmness spread in his chest. It feels something almost like hope.

* * *

"Hokage-Sama?" Sakura pokes her head from behind the door to his office. She is smiling at him and he squints at her like he would the sun. "I brought you some lunch."

"Please, Sakura-Chan drop the formalities." He says lazily as she places a take-out container in front of him. "Just call me Kakashi"

* * *

She is playing with Pakkun and the rest of his ninkin. It feels oddly domestic.

He would be a liar if he said it didn't make his soul soar watching them.

Her laughter cuts through the silence of the upcoming twilight. She spins around to face him."Kakashi, what are you staring at?" She places her hands on her hips and smiles. The dogs yapping around her also look towards him expectantly.

She looks beautiful, perfect, and just as unattainable as ever.

"Nothing."

* * *

He hears that Sasuke is back and he fears that he is going to lose her. Not like she even belongs to him in the first place, but that doesn't stop him from nervously shaking his legs under his desk. He wants to run somewhere…to wherever she is and do… what? He isn't sure.

He rakes his fingers through his hair and turns his chair around towards the window over looking the village.

A soft knock reaches his ears.

"Come in."

"Kakashi?" Her voice is barely above a whisper and his shoulders stiffen.

"Sakura-Chan? What are you doing here?" He turns so quickly to face her, he is dizzy. "Isn't Sasuke back? I thought you would be with him?"

She looks up at him, with a pained expression on her face. There is a brief silence between them. Kakashi watches as a war seems to be going on behind her bright eyes. Then suddenly her back goes straight and she shakes her head from side to side.

"I would rather be with you."

"Oh?" He blinks several times.

She looks up at the bright florescent lights in his office, before looking back at him with a sweet smile on her face.

"Yes, because we are shinobi and tomorrow is never guaranteed." She brings her hand to her chin, lost in her thoughts.

He tilts his head to the side as he regards her. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"It means that. I will always want Sasuke to be happy, but…things are different now."

His brow furrows as he stares at her.

She nervously shifts her weight from foot to foot.

"I just would rather be with you. I like having dinner with you and playing with Pakkun and the pack. I like how you look at me when you think I am not paying attention. I like how my name sounds on your lips and…" Her eyes turn a shade darker as she contemplates him. "I love you."

"What?" He feels any breath he in his body leave all at once.

"I love you."

He is on his feet. His chair toppling back.

"I know you probably don't feel the same or maybe you just think it's some crush, but I-"

He is in front of her, gripping her shoulders in a tight vice.

"Say it again."

"What?"

"Say it again."

"I love you." He has is mask down and is slipping an arm around her slender waist before she finishes speaking. Kakashi feels that the seconds before his lips touch hers, are impossibly slow.

She lets out a sharp gasp. Before slowly wrapping her arms around his neck.

He pulls away breathless and impossibly happy.

"I love you too" He buries his face in her warm neck, taking a deep breath of her scent.

* * *

She is everywhere. Her scent constantly lingers on his comforter, her favorite tea finds a home in his kitchen cabinet, her hair is probably swirling around the drain in his shower, but he definitely can't find the time to really care.

He is too busy playing with her hair. Lifting and dropping the soft tendrils through his calloused fingers. Her small frame, is wrapped around him, her head on his chest.

It feels surreal.

She stirs slightly.

He can't stop the swell of emotions the sweep through him, as he watches her sleeping.

Kakashi feels foolish for denying himself this small pleasure for so long.

"Sakura?"

"Hmm." The colors of the sun rise paint her in a beautiful light.

"Will you marry me?"

"Right now?" She says through a yawn and burrows deeper into his chest.

"No, it can wait till later. I was thinking maybe in the spring." He looks down at the top of her head, imagining her in white, cherry blossoms fluttering around her.

He hears the smile in her voice. "Sounds wonderful." She plants a soft kiss where his heart is. Kakashi runs his fingers through her hair again. Humming softly to himself, as the sun moves further up in the sky and an overwhelming sense of peace finally settles over him.

* * *

Author's Note: Please let me know if you notice any mistakes! Reviews are much appreciated.


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